Questions linger about Lanza's mindset

Published 10:20 pm, Friday, March 29, 2013

Despite a wealth of evidence collected from Adam Lanza's home by investigators, the release of previously sealed documents has left many questions unanswered.

Investigators are continuing to examine documents, journals, computer equipment and receipts found at the scene, and interviewing witnesses who might shed more light on Lanza's state of mind before he blasted his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he killed 20 young children and six educators on Dec. 14.

But one direction of the probe seems clear: By moving to keep secret the serial numbers on the gunman's gaming consoles, investigators appear intent on tracking down people with whom Lanza, an avid gamer, was playing and communicating.

"We already know the warning signs that pre-exist before these kind of shootings," said Mary Ellen O'Toole, a retired FBI behavioral analyst whose expertise is in mass homicides and school violence.

"And one of the most compelling is leakage -- telling someone ahead of time what you're going to do."

O'Toole said investigators will want to know who Lanza corresponded with online, and who might have influenced his decisions.

"Were there other people he was in contact with that gave him the ability to mentally fuel the attack?" she asked.

Peter Valentin, a retired State Police detective with the Major Crime Squad, said he believes investigators redacted serial numbers from documents released Thursday for the Xbox console and a laptop found in Lanza's home because those numbers could be used to access account information and to find people Lanza communicated with.

Sources said other search warrants were issued by federal authorities to Internet service providers, cellphone companies and online gaming sites to determine if Lanza had any contact with anyone through calls, texting or instant messaging.

Investigators were also trying to find out whether Lanza had any angry online exchanges that might have led to his gaming privileges being suspended or banned in the days prior to the shootings.

The results of those warrants have not been released.

O'Toole and Valentin said they were also very interested to learn how Lanza amassed so much ammunition.

"It was stunning to see how much weaponry was inside that house, and how it was stored," O'Toole said.

Valentin said the shooter's mother, Nancy Lanza, was clearly allowing and financing the purchases, based on the disclosure of a check to Adam for a firearm purchase and the emails to gunbroker.com, a prominent Internet firearms and ammunition dealer.

"There's no indication she is doing anything to subvert it," Valentin said of Nancy Lanza, who was shot dead by her son earlier on the morning of the Sandy Hook massacre.

Valentin said the loaded 12-gauge shotgun as well as two magazines each containing 70 rounds of ammunition left behind in the car while Lanza was in the school is "a tremendous amount of firepower" that could have made things "far worse than they were."

Valentin said he wonders why Lanza left that weaponry behind, and whether he was planning to go anywhere else after the school attack.

Answers could be contained in the volume of papers, printed emails and seven journals Lanza wrote. Those documents could also tell why Lanza targeted Sandy Hook Elementary -- a school that a witness told the FBI was Lanza's "life."

O'Toole said that while not a complete statement, "I would interpret that to mean going to that school was very important to him, and then he stopped going there."

That, she said, could have fostered feelings of resentment.

"You don't just wake up one day and decide you're unhappy and resentful and want to go to a school and kill 20 children," O'Toole said. "That takes a lot of building blocks, and a lot of time. He had to develop this mentality of retaliation and wanting to take revenge."